View from E62 during the power outage. Courtesy of Lisa DeCanio.
On Thursday, November 29th, around 4:20 pm, most of Cambridge and all of MIT lost power. Electricity was mostly restored by 6:30 pm, but the outage resulted in gridlock throughout much of Cambridge as well as the cancellation of a political forum at Harvard featuring top advisers from both campaigns in the recent presidential elections.
The outage affected around 17,000 customers according to NStar, and occurred during maintenance to a transmission line in Cambridge. While the main line was out of service, a backup line was used. However, the second line was shut down when a relay “incorrectly sensed an abnormality”, according to the preliminary investigation. Power was restored when the relay was disabled.
Fortunately, MIT’s backup generators kept hall lights on so students and staff could find their way out of campus buildings. Others in Cambridge had to use cell phones as flash lights to get out and there were some reports to the police of people getting stuck in elevators.
View of Cambridge from East Cambridge at the beginning of the power outage. Courtesy of Lisa DeCanio
The lack of power failed to dissuade some MIT students from continuing their work, including a 6.431 tutorial session which continued through the darkness thanks to a number of students having flashlights.
In Sid-Pac, the most noticeable effect has been the technical difficulties experienced by SPTV and some wireless routers. If you are still having trouble with your wireless internet access, please report your issues to IS&T, and use an ethernet cable in the meantime. Ethernet cables are available for free at the IS&T building (E17).
By Patrick Blonigan (SP Newsletter Chair)